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System and method for increasing demand for perishable goods or vanishing goods at a point-of-sale location

System and method for increasing demand for perishable goods or vanishing goods at a point-of-sale location description/claims

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/939,938, filed May 24, 2007.

This application is directed to driving demand for perishable or vanishing goods at the point-of-sale, such as at restaurants, supermarkets, bakeries, meat wholesalers, butchers, wine manufacturers, fruit wholesalers, product markets retail and wholesale, or transportation or entertainment facilities offering participation space as well as non food items that have a “valuable life cycle” that is predictable, and related to inventory availability and monitored by a data base system, and more particularly, for targeting purchasers of the perishable goods as a function of customer geographic location in real time.

It is known in the art to predict product demand for goods at retail, wholesale, or transportation or entertainment facilities offering participation space, or processor facilities based on experience. With the advent of computer technology, modeling has been developed to predict demand for goods. However, at locations where goods are perishable, such as restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, food processing facilities, the model can be upset by anything from an unforeseen competing event, weather, traffic jams, the absence of regular customers for any unexpected reasons, or errors made in the production process; any combination of which could leave the entity with excess perishable inventory. If the goods are not sold within their perishable life, they must be discarded and no revenue is recognized by the owner.

Furthermore, these facilities and restaurants are staffed with personnel and provided with equipment that meets optimum predicted sales at peak traffic times. Accordingly, at traditional rush hours such as lunchtime and dinnertime the facility or restaurant is able to operate at or near full capacity. However, there are down times between the peak hours of sale during which the inventory of equipment, personnel and foodstuffs or other inventory of vanishing assets is under utilized. Although the predictive models may be able to predict these down times, it is still inefficient to idle equipment or send staff home for an interim time period. Conversely, if demand unpredictably slows, then food in process will go to waste.

Furthermore, the current method for driving demand within the retail facility or store is for the preparation or operations staff to communicate to the sales staff that a certain food or vanishing item is about to become waste or vanish. This is done on an ad hoc basis, usually by the operations or preparation staff leaving their station to talk to the sales staff at the counters, or communicating in some other fashion,

Accordingly, a methodology and system that overcome the shortcomings of the prior art are desired.

In accordance with the invention, a method for increasing demand for a perishable or vanishing item utilizing production or inventory capacity planning in a bakery, restaurant, supermarket, or food processing, transportation or entertainment facility, which allows for flexibility and production forecastability to determine a necessary number of customers within a time interval to balance demand with production or inventory capacity is provided. The determination is made as a function of raw material, labor availability, work in process, and food in holding cabinets or other inventory in storage, awaiting purchase. By monitoring this production and inventory capacity and the trend of sales, by utilizing probability theory, and expected sales in a given time interval necessary demand to optimize sales is predicted. It is then determined how many additional sales must be made within a predetermined period in order to prevent waste, given the predicted in store traffic of customers. At the beginning of the determined time interval, a message is sent by electronic intra-facility communication to the staff responsible for selling product within the facility. It is envisioned that within facilities where competing brands offering similar products and services are operating, an inter company exchange of this inventory and ability to offer services could be offered to participating members so that excess demand could be offered to units with excess capacity and vice versa.

In a preferred embodiment, the communication is by display at a point-of-sale device. In other embodiments, the communication may be by radio frequency, cellular phone, pager or any other type of electronic communication to sales staff either in the facility or at remote order centers via an Internet connection, (a virtual sales person on site). Another embodiment is to broadcast these messages on display boards as advertising either at kiosk order points or in waiting rooms and lobbies

FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a communication system in accordance with the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for the method of driving demand in accordance with the invention.

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• Utility Patent

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